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Sausages and bacon have been taken off the menu at some Swedish hotels after the owner of one of Scandinavia’s biggest chains yielded to the influence of his environmental campaigner wife.

“This is a new breakfast concept for our Comfort hotels,” Petter Stordalen, the billionaire owner of the Nordic Choice Hotel Group, told Norwegian news site Hegnar.no.

“The focus on sustainability permeates what we do in Nordic Choice.”

Stordalen's company's new green, healthy menu has been introduced across Scandinavia, including in a number of Swedish hotels.

The menu, which has been developed in collaboration with Dr Gunhild Stordalen’s EAT Food Forum, offers healthy, plant-based alternatives to the greasy breakfasts regularly served up to business travellers.

As well as removing sausages and bacon, the menu has also been stripped of any cereals or cheese which include palm oil among their ingredients, to reduce the destruction of the rainforest.

According to Sweden’s Västerbottens Kuriren newspaper, the change has not gone down well with some travellers to the Hotell Winn in the northern city of Umeå.

“There are mixed reactions,” says Ebba Kohl, who runs the restaurant.

“Some are upset and some understanding.”

Kenneth Hultgren, a press officer for the Comfort chain in Sweden, said that the chain was trialling the idea, and would decide whether to abandon it or extend it to other chains in the coming months.

“We want to challenge and break down many of the traditional conventions around hotels,” he said. “When guests check out of our hotel they will feel that we have helped them to make good and healthy choices, that our food has been tasty and healthy.”

Siri Martinsen, the head of the Norwegian animal rights group NOAH, welcomed the move.

“Eating vegetarian is the most effective thing you can do both for animal welfare and the environment. It’s good for your health too,” she said.